On behalf of John K. Elliott

A mystery that wasn't solved in time, and who's the real hero. Also, 7 other things worth your time.

In 1969, a deputy U.S. marshal named John K. Elliott was assigned to track down a fugitive: a Cleveland bank teller who walked away on a Friday afternoon with a bag filled with $215,000 in cash (roughly $1.5 million in today’s money).

John K. Elliott, in 2019. Source: Lake Erie’s Coldest Cases.

Elliott was about 33 years old when he first caught the case. He had a lot to go on.

• He knew the bank teller’s real name: Theodore J. “Ted” Conrad.

• He had Conrad’s photo and examples of his signature, and knew his date of birth: July 10, 1949.

• He dug up almost every detail about Conrad’s childhood: his family, where he’d gone to school, who his friends and his girlfriend were.

• He even figured out that Conrad had once worked at the same ice cream place where Elliott liked to take his family, and that both he and Conrad had the same doctor.

• Also, he learned that Conrad was obsessed with the Steve McQueen movie, The Thomas Crown Affair, which had come out the year before, and said after watching it repe…